Multiver's Travels YGX
Dimension Visited: This time Multiver's landed in the universe of Yu-Gi-Oh, specifically the GX era. Get ready Duel Academy, here comes Multiver! Arrival The wormhole snapped open unexpectedly in the empty card factory. A figure was unceremoniously tossed from the shimmering portal before it snapped closed. The figure rolled to its feet, three glowing dots on its forehead in the shape of an inverted triangle, "Ok Brainy, where are we this time?" His head tilted to the side, as though listening to someone, "So you don't know either." He sighed, "Ok, locate and access local computer systems." He raised his hands and tendrils exploded from his fingers, quickly moving across the large room, slithering across numerous printing presses and spreading smaller tendrils across them, quickly activating the printers and absorbing all the data they contained before continuing on until they found their target: a mass of computer cables. The figure grinned broadly and quickly hacked the entire factory's computer system, from there expanding to the entire world wide web and hacking every computer system on the planet, copying every byte of data into the limitless mind of the figure in the card factory. In mere minutes, the figure knew every ounce of information ever stored in that dimensions computers. He grinned and turned to the printers, "Oh that's where we are! Brilliant, I actually know this dimension! Brainy, let's equip ourselves shall we? Duel Monsters is the name of the game in this dimension, so we can hardly go wrong with an unstoppable deck." The tendrils snapped out again from the hand and transferred data on over a hundred Duel Monsters cards into the printer, which flared to life and quickly printed two copies of each. As the Industrial Illusions security personnel burst into the dark room, they found the room totally abandoned, the only trace of an intruder: the warmth of printing press 13 and a slight smell of sulfur. Hundreds of miles away, Maximillion Pegasus leapt to his feet as his head of security informed him of the break in. Pegasus quickly dressed himself, hardly noticing the scent of acrid sulfur until he pulled on his clothes and felt a lump in his pocket. He quickly extracted the lump and found it was a small parcel. His curiosity evoked, he opened the parcel and wrinkled his nose at the sulfurous scent roiling from the wrapping. Out of the parcel fell several Duel Monsters cards, and a note, all of which he quickly scooped from the floor and set on his desk before sitting down to read the note. His frown only deepened as he read it, '' Mr. Pegasus, I have recently arrived in this dimension, and finding myself unequipped to play Duel Monsters, which I gather to be a rather important game in this dimension, I have borrowed one of your printing presses for my own purposes, but I felt that such use should not go unpaid for. Such being the case, I have left you a copy of every card I created using your printing press. I think you will find them all to be of a quality as fine as your company's standard, and very potent. You may use them as you wish, keep them for yourself, or mass produce them. They are compatible with every duel system on the planet, so you can send them into production immediately if such is your wish. If you wish to contact me, I will soon be arriving at Duel Academy, where I intend to be staying until such time as I am able to make other arrangements. Sincerely, Multiver Oliver Saljump '' Pegasus raised an eyebrow and shook his head in confusion as he finished the letter. Then he picked up the cards and began leafing through them, examining every card closely, growing more and more impressed with every card, "What a mind this Saljump fellow must have! I simply must meet him!" Then he picked up his phone and called his security chief, "Croquet, stand down the alert. Our mysterious intruder has left me a present as recompense for his intrusion!" "Do I need to call the bomb squad sir?" "No you fool! But get on the phone to Duel Academy at once! I want to know everything there is to know about one Multiver Oliver Saljump, and I want to know immediately!" "Yes sir." Pegasus sat back and mused over the cards on his desk as he hung up. Every card in the pile was formidable, and many of them were so strong he shuddered to think of what terrible creatures must have inspired them. Then he overcame his shivers and began to excitedly compile a deck from the cards, thinking about how wonderfully they could work together with his toon cards. Then he paused and sat back, "Why, these seem to be the exact equal and opposite to my toons! They're like something from a horror movie! I've never seen such fearsomely powerful cards! I wonder if even Yugi-boy could defeat them!" Multiver appeared in the bathroom aboard a trans-pacific flight, and with a quick psychic pulse ensured nobody aboard the less-than-half full plane would question his sudden appearance. He had hidden the greenish cast of his skin and the lights on his forehead that indicated his fusion with the cybernetic-entity he had picked up in a different dimension known as Braniac. His eyes had gone from their usual incandescent yellow to a warm soft brown, and he had brushed off the sulfurous odor that hung around him after teleporting in favor of a light aroma of apples. He stepped out and scanned the occupants of the plane, judging them for quality of temporary companionship. A voice in his head asked, "Why do you continue to seek human companionship? We have no need of human interaction." Multiver replied to the voice, "Because Brainy, people are interesting. They've got flavor, everyone's unique, and some are quite lovely." He said these last two words aloud as he leaned over the back of a seat and smiled at the beautiful woman in the window seat, who turned two large purple eyes on him, "Thanks hon, but I'm not interested." Multiver smiled, "Interested in what, may I ask?" The woman blinked beneath her mane of blonde curls, unsure of how to react, "What?" Multiver smiled, "A drink perhaps? You look like you could use one. Perhaps that's what you're uninterested in?" The woman raised an eyebrow and turned back to the window, "Sure that was it." She felt the seat bounce a little, please don't have sat down she thought. Then Multiver said quietly, "I'm Oliver Saljump, and unless I'm mistaken, you're Mai Valentine aren't you? I'm a huge fan of your dueling." Mai's eyes widened and she turned to look at him. He had one elbow on the armrest, resting his head on one finger and looking at her with a crooked smile. His hair was black, and he was wearing a short black coat over a gray shirt and jeans. He looked simple and down to earth, but she knew that if he was on this luxury airliner, he must have had some serious dough, and, she thought, he wasn't half bad looking either. As she looked him over he continued, "I fully understand if you're reluctant to relive old victories, but I just wanted to express my admiration of your performance in the Duelist Kingdom Tournament. I understand you were one of the four finalists, and only came in third because you went up against the King of Games in the first round of the finals. Yet, you came in third, and you were a finalist again in Battle City. The rest of your record speaks for itself as well. You are a very impressive duelist. I would love to pick the brain behind those skills." Mai blushed slightly and tried to hide her smile, "You certainly have done your homework," then she smiled, "but I'm afraid you have to win the right to pick my brains. Think you can throw down with me in a duel?" "Oliver" smiled, "I don't know, but I would love to try." Mai quickly extracted her deck from her hip side holster, "Let's duel." "Oliver" fished a deck from a breast pocket, and then he pulled something from the back of his coat, where he had been hiding it, Mai didn't even begin to know. It was long and thin and flat, and Mai had never seen anything like it, "What's that?" She asked. "Oliver" smiled, "An itty bitty portable dueling arena. We don't have room to fire up our duel disks in here, and I keep one of these handy for occasions like this." He laid it down on the armrest in between them and opened it like a scroll, revealing tiny holo-projectors in the ends, which quickly flickered to life. "Whoa," Mai said quietly, "Never seen one of these before." "Very few people have," "Oliver" smiled, "It's a little something I've been working on for Industrial Illusions. A lot of people can't afford a duel disk, so this is a cheaper smaller version of a duel arena for the people who can't afford the better stuff. It's not set to go into mass production for a while. Congratulations, you're one of the very first people to ever use one of these." "I'm flattered," Mai said with a slight dryness in her voice and a slight smile on her face, then she set her deck down on the tiny field, "Now let's duel." Within five turns, Mai had "Oliver" on the ropes at 200 Life Points from his starting 4000. "Oliver" smiled bashfully, "Well, that's unsurprising. You're even more impressive in person." Mai smiled with a touch of arrogance, "You've got some impressive cards yourself. I'm not sure I've ever heard of them though, and you're not really playing them to their fullest." The bashful smile widened, "Well, you do have a certain way of befuddling a fellow." "What's that supposed to mean?" Mai asked, with a touch of heat in her voice, uncertain if she had just been accused of cheating. "Oliver" smiled and his bashfulness seemed to crank up another notch, "well, it's hard to focus on my cards when I keep getting lost in your eyes." Mai's jaw dropped a little, and then she burst out laughing, "You smooth little devil you!" "Oliver" just smiled, and then, "If I were braver, I might suggest we wager a kiss on the outcome of this duel, but then you'd laugh at me." Mai only laughed harder, then she managed to get herself under control and examine the field. "Oliver" didn't have a single card on the field and only 200 life points left. She had her Harpy's Pet Dragon, Harpy Lady Sisters and Cyber Harpy all on the field with Mirror Force face-down and nearly half again as many life points as what she had started with. She looked up and smiled at him as he blushed and peeked over the top of his cards at her, then on an impulse she couldn't explain, "If you can beat me right now sweety, forget a kiss I'll..." She leaned across the tiny field and whispered something in his ear that made his hair stand on end in surprise and turned his whole face red. She leaned back and smiled over the top her cards at him, knowing there would be no way in hell he could possibly concentrate now. "Oliver" nodded slowly, eyes wide as his hair fell back into position, "Deal." Mai smiled at him, "Your move sweety. Make it a good one." "Oliver" nodded, "Oh I think I'd be a fool not to." Two spell cards and four devastating attacks later, Mai's life points hit zero as her jaw hit the floor. "You...you..."Mai stammered, barely able to comprehend what had just happened. "Devil, sometimes," "Oliver" smiled, all trace of bashfulness gone, replaced by cool confidence, "smooth, usually, but little? Never." Mai blinked and then burst out laughing as she resolved to make good on every word of her offer, unaware of the subtle psychic influence that had been working on her since "Oliver" sat down. "Oliver" grinned and thought, Check. Mate. The next night after the plane touched down in Domino City, an untraceable cybernetic entity hacked several banks, record offices, government databases, one Duel Monsters Prep School, and Duel Academy's most carefully guarded systems, all for one purpose: creating two false identities for the immortal dimension jumping being known as Multiver Saljump while he made good on his bet with a woman he'd had a cross dimensional crush on for decades in an obscenely expensive and luxurious hotel room. By dawn, Multiver Saljump was on the roll for Duel Academy's incoming class to test the following morning, Oliver Saljump was an inventor from the middle of nowhere who had recently applied for a job at Industrial Illusions, and Multiver was delighted to learn from Brainiac's report that he had arrived at a point in the dimension's history he was extremely familiar with. The next morning, Multiver rose from the bed and split in two. The Multiver climbing back into bed would be the Multiver which would stay behind when the original Multiver moved onto another dimension, known to most as Oliver Saljump (ostensibly his own brother). The Multiver whose clothes were flowing across him like water as he headed for the door, a copy of the cards he had made at the Industrial Illusions card factory in tow, that was the real one, and he knew even as he stepped through the door, that when he left, his departure in a few years would be a source of consternation to many, and there would in all likelihood be a massive plague of rumors concerning his disappearance. Then he grinned as he contemplated the actions he would soon effect and headed for the Duel Academy entrance exams, set to start in an hour. More soon to come Next Time, Multiver's Duel Academy Entrance Exams!